On Saturday, Texas country mainstay Brandon Rhyder will be performing at Lucky Maggie’s, 1630 Hwy. 59, Diamond.
The show starts at 10:30 p.m. For ticket information, please visit luckymaggies.com.
“It is country-rock,” Rhyder said of his music. “We are a country band, we have country roots. I write most of the material, I have a great band. It is a lot of fun, a lot of work, but at the same time, it gives us the artistic ability and freedom to decide what we want to put on records and how we want to push our records.”
Whether it is in his writing, performing or everyday life, Rhyder is always striving to get better. And his dedication shows as he is celebrating his fastest rising single to date, “Rock Angel,” which held the coveted No. 1 spot on both the Texas Music chart and Texas Regional Radio for two solid consecutive weeks.
“I take pride in the songs that I write and want to be able to sing many of them for years to come,” he said. “I still have a lot to learn and as life presents itself, I’ll continue to strive to get better.”
Written by Rhyder, “Rock Angel,” is an up-tempo song, which he says lists exactly what women want to hear. This song is the lead track from his new disc, Head Above Water, available now on iTunes and brandonryhder.com. The album also includes a bonus DVD featuring a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of this disc. Produced by longtime friend and mentor Walt Wilkins, “Head Above Water” is Rhyder’s sixth full-length album and is the follow-up to Every Night. To date, he has delivered three Top 20 singles, two Top 10 singles, three Top 5 singles and now two No. 1 singles with “Rock Angel” and “Before I Knew Your Name.”
A career in music came shortly after college.
“In fact the crazy part of it is that music has always been around me,” he said. “It was always there at my fingertips. My grandfather — who is in his late 70s — has always been in bands and stuff. And I kind of just thought that it was unrealistic to look at that and to do something like that and think that I might be able to make a career out of it. I graduated with a degree, quickly came to learn that I was not exactly satisfied with that either. I had recently picked up the guitar about the time that I was graduating in ‘98 and once I found the guitar, it all really started to make sense. I knew that I wanted to try it…”
Rhyder has been in the business for the past nine years. Currently Rhyder is playing dates all over Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.
“We love to play and put the music out there,” he said.
